Making
Decisions or Making Disciples
What marks the difference between a growing church and a plateaued
church? One difference is the growing church is better at outreach.
Growing churches have an intentional and consistent strategy for outreach.
Forty-two percent of the growing churches are deeply involved in reaching
the unchurched; whereas only 11 percent of the plateaued churches and
6 percent of the declining churches rate high in evangelism.1
Some churches grow without evangelism, but that is not true Kingdom
growth. Instead it is transfer growth, shuffling saints from one church
to another; or biological growth, children born to church members.
Nearly a third of Assemblies of God churches----7,872 of 11,536----reported
that they had no conversions in 1991. Overall there was a decline in
conversions of 24,744 from the previous year.
Even those churches that reported conversions saw only a small percentage
of those persons become assimilated into the church and the kingdom
of God. With 294,784 conversions reported, the number of Assemblies
of God adherents increased only 53,206; membership, only 26,679; Sunday
morning worship attendance, 14,337; and Sunday School attendance increased
4,572. This represents less than a 5 percent retention of the reported
converts based upon the net gains. What is going on?
Ray Comfort, author of Hell's Best Kept Secret, talks about
this problem. He says, "Something is wrong and has been wrong for nearly
100 years of evangelism, since the church forsook the key to the sinner's
heart. It set aside the Ten Commandments in their function to convert
the soul (Psalms 19:7) and to show us our true state, and thus see our
need of God's forgiveness." He goes on to quote Charles Spurgeon who
said, "The Law serves a most necessary purpose. . .they will never accept
grace, until they tremble before a just and holy Law." The Law makes
grace abound.
The church has been severely weakened because the gospel of Christ
has been tainted by an overemphasis upon grace and an omission of the
Law. Paul described the Law as the "schoolmaster that brings people
to grace." Without the Law we don't know right from wrong. Without the
Law we don't recognize our need for God or His grace. When people don't
recognize and acknowledge they are lost, they also see no need for a
Savior. People make a decision for Christ; but rather than a decision
to turn to Christ through repentance, they turn to Christ as a life
enhancement or alternative lifestyle. Then when the crisis is over or
the emotional moment is past, Christ is no longer needed. We wonder
why we struggle with closing the back door, why people respond to an
altar call or evangelism efforts, but we never see them again. We struggle
to get people to witness or to enlist in ministry in the church.
Much of this, I contend, is only a symptom of a deeper root problem,
that is, no genuine conversion experience. When people genuinely experience
the new birth, they want to witness, they want to serve, they want to
pray and study God's Word, and they want to come together with other
believers to worship.
Every true believer is born into the kingdom of God with an intense
desire to share God's love with others. Andrew had to share the good
news with his brother, Peter. The woman at the well in Samaria went
back to the city to get her friends to "come see a man." Peter and John
spoke to the man at the temple gate. "Silver and gold have I none but
in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk," Peter said. They gave what
they had, and they had something to give because they had been with
Jesus! Many of our evangelism techniques and efforts effectively inoculate
people toward "true Christianity." We tell them if they will let Christ
into their life He will solve their problems, heal their hurts, meet
their needs, give them fulfillment and meaning in life. All that is
true, but some people come to Christ so their lives can be enhanced
rather than because they are hopelessly lost in sin. There is no rebirth
because there is no repentance. They repeat the sinner's prayer and
then we tell them they are Christians. They have a form of godliness
but no power.
The church is facing its greatest challenge. The destiny of our friends,
families, our churches, and Fellowship rests upon whether we truly make
disciples or decisions for Christ.
1Kirk Hadaway, "Do Evangelism and Outreach Activities Lead
to Church Growth?" Growing Churches, October - December, 1990
